Madam Cutie on Duty episode 10 recap

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Side dish: Apple’s neighbours are about to teach her how to cook leek with lamb, among other dishes, when they are distracted by Wan’s apartment. Apple can still cook Stir-fried lamb with leeks and coriander courtesy of the recipe from SBS.

Episode Recap

Things are looking up for housewife, Dan Dan’s (Mandy Wong) husband. After having an encouraging chat with the estate plumber, Tai Shu (Edwin Siu), hubby finds out that he has been offered a new job. The couple have a mutually supportive moment. Later, he proposes that they try for the baby that Dan Dan wants.

Both Tai Shu’s neighbour, Lin Heung (Rachel Kan) and his fake wife, Apple (Priscilla Wong) are fearful for his safety thanks to a tarot card reading. They resort to superstitious rituals and charms to block possible possession.

At midnight, when the risk of possession is at its highest, Tai Shu gets up to use the washroom. Apple whips black beans in Tai Shu’s face, and attacks him. When the lights are back on, Apple attempts to tend to Tai Shu’s wounds. She points to his crying and sleepwalking as evidence of possession, not knowing that Tai Shu was actually mourning the loss of his girlfriend. Tai Shu angrily pokes his bandaged finger at her.

Tai Shu goes to the arcade to let off some steam while playing a first person shooter game. Lin Heung’s teenage son, Chit challenges him without knowing that the odds are in the undercover cop’s favour. Sure enough, Tai Shu beats him handily. When Tai Shu tells Chit to give up, the teenager parrots back the advice that Tai Shu gave him to never take ‘no’ as an answer.

Tai Shu is inspired by his own words to bring a bouquet of roses to his ex-girlfriend, Fong. Before he can approach her, Tai Shu spots Fong with her new boyfriend, and his own father confronting the couple. Tai Shu’s father begs for Fong to return to his son, just as Tai Shu rushes in to intervene. That is when Tai Shu informs his dad that they have broken up.

Tai Shu’s dad is crying like Fong is his ex-girlfriend, but Tai Shu admits that Fong is with a better man. He never really cared much for her for most of their eight year relationship, despite the fact Fong took care of both him and his father.

When Tai Shu wonders about his father’s cheesy tactics in wooing Fong, he reveals that Apple was the mastermind, not knowing that Apple and Tai Shu are partners. When he gets home, Tai Shu immediately reams Apple out for interfering. They squabble until it is agreed that they will complete their investigations separately.

After he quits his job early, Dan Dan’s husband would like to use the time before he starts his new job to go on a mini vacation. Their daughter has a test at school, and cannot go with them. Over dim sum with their neighbours, Dan Dan attempts to enlist a babysitter. Apple ends up volunteering to take care of the girl. It turns out that Apple is hoping to have unfettered access to Dan Dan’s apartment while taking care of her daughter in order to search for evidence of loan shark ties.

Apple’s plan is complicated when Dan Dan entrusts the key for her bedroom door to her daughter. Apple plies the little girl with a dinner of junk food and reads a story to her, hoping that she will fall asleep faster. Rather than sleep, the little girl finally admits to stealing Apple’s pillow. With her precious pillow back, Apple falls asleep before the little girl, then is woken up by her when she is ready to go to school.

That day, Apple struggles to do Dan Dan’s product deliveries. By the time she brings Dan Dan’s daughter home, she is exhausted. Apple then notices that the girl has left the bedroom key out while she goes to the washroom. Apple takes this opportunity to rifle through Dan Dan’s bedroom. The only thing of note that she finds is a sleazy photo of Dan Dan, which she makes a copy of with her phone.

Apple is jolted by the sound of Dan Dan’s little daughter calling for her mother. She hurriedly puts things back, but ends up dropping the compromising photo. It turns out to be a false alarm, but Dan Dan and her husband arrive shortly after.

Apple shares Dan Dan’s photo with her boss, Wu Sir (Junior Anderson) during a meeting on a fishing boat. He surmises that Dan Dan may be the victim of blackmail rather than a loan shark associate, and Apple agrees. When Tai Shu taunts Apple about her investigative dead end, Wu Sir points out that Dan Dan could still be a key witness against the loan shark syndicate.

This development narrows the investigation to Lin Heung, and beauty store owner, Fung Nei (Kaki Leung). Tai Shu noticed that Lin Heung appears preoccupied with messaging on her tablet. He wonders if she is contacting her loan shark boss.

Apple’s socialite mother is still searching for Fung Nei’s mother-in-law, a former Chinese opera star. She has narrowed her location to the housing estate that Apple is working in, unbeknownst to her mother.

Apple’s mother is wandering around the housing estate complex, when she runs into the very woman she is looking for. They immediately engage in an argument until Apple’s mother walks away in a huff.

Apple’s mother next runs into more of Apple’s neighbours, who immediately identify her as Apple’s mother. Naturally, Apple’s mother denies the association since her daughter is unmarried, and would not live in a housing estate.

She asks if they know of the famous Chinese opera singer she is looking for. It turns out that the women were just complaining to security about a woman shrieking at night. Apple’s mother dismisses this information since the woman she is looking for has a beautiful voice, then offers $5000 to anyone who helps her find the opera singer.

Apple and her neighbours are passing by comatose loan shark, Wan’s apartment when they notice that the security gate is open, and there is light coming from under the front door. Suddenly the door opens, and the women cry out in alarm.

Comments

Now that Tai Shu has been humbled by the loss of his girlfriend, Apple is definitely the weak link of the investigative partnership. Her fear that Tai Shu is possessed was ludicrous. I know that it was meant to be comedic, but it was more an annoying distraction from the story line than amusing.

Dan Dan and her husband are too happy considering it is only the midway point of the series. I predict that Apple’s incompetent bumbling in Dan Dan’s bedroom will cause a rift between the married couple when the husband finds Wan’s compromising photo of his wife. If their marital strife takes time away from Apple’s nonsense, and her mother’s search for the opera singer, then it can’t come soon enough.